Known in the present state of the orthopedic art are some artificial knee joints (cf. USSR Inventor's Certificate No. 532,377, class A61F 1/04 of 1972; a catalogue of the firm "Howmedica" issued in Great Britain in 1973, indexes Nos. 2660-9, 2661-0, 2661-9). These artificial knee joints comprise two semijoints interlinked through a cylindrical articulation, and wedgelike antirotation spikes and rods made fast in the femoral and tibial bones.
One more artificial hip joint designed by K. M. Sivash is known to comprise an artificial cotyloid cavity and artificial femoral head and neck made as an integral piece, as well as a tapered fenestrated rod fixed in the medullary canal of the femoral diaphysis.
The devices discussed above are adapted for alloplasty of the knee joint or the hip joint alone and cannot be used for simultaneous prosthetic restoration of both the hip and knee joints with the femoral diaphysis either left in place or ablated. Thus, in the case where the femoral diaphysis is left in place, the tapered rods of the artificial knee and hip joints cannot be fixed in the medullar canal of the femoral bone since the same define a strictly definite length, while in the case where the femoral diaphysis is resected said tapered rods fail to provide locomotor function of the extremity since the same are not interlinked.
Still another device for the functional restoration of an extremity (cf. a catalogue of the firm "Howmedica" issued in Great Britain in 1973, index No. 2934-9, p. M3) is known to comprise an artificial hip joint associated with an artificial knee joint through an artificial femoral diaphysis. The artificial femoral diaphysis is made as a rod one of whose ends is inseparably linked to the artificial hip joint and the other end is inseparably linked to the artificial knee joint. Such a constructional arrangement of the device renders it inapplicable in operations, where the femoral diaphysis must and can in fact be retained. Application of the known device in question involves a greater degree of tissue traumatization as in this case the necessity arises of a complete resection of the femoral bone. The device cannot also be applied to patients whose femoral bones differ in length.